Frequent serious infections are associated with an increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease

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The researchers noted no link between infection and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, regardless of the age of diagnosis.

These findings suggest that infection can trigger or amplify an already existing disease process, leading to the onset of neurodegenerative disease at a relatively young age, he says. Jianghui Sunfirst author of the study and a postdoctoral fellow at Department of Medical Epidemiology and BiostatisticsKarolinska Institutet.

However, he points out that the results do not prove a causal relationship because the study is an observational study.

The research was funded by the Swedish Research Council, the Joint Program on Neurodegenerative Diseases, and the China Scholarship Council.

This text is based on Press release from PLOS Medicine.

Publishing

“Hospitalized infection in early and middle life and risk of Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: a nationwide cross-sectional controlled study in Sweden.Jiangui Sun, Jonas F. Ludvigson, Caroline Ingre, Frederick Bell, Karen Werdfeldt, Ulrika Zagai, Yemin Yi, Fang Fang. Plus Medicine, Online 15 Sep 2022, doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1004092